John Moltz

Part of the problem, not the solution.

Would someone in the Democratic party please fire this pollster?

Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, said he did not believe there was much risk in campaigns' aggressively invoking Sept. 11, since, he suggested, most voters will perceive references to it as sincere.

"I think there will never be a backlash," Mr. Greenberg said. "The country will resist politics coming into it. They'll just block it out. It's very special with Americans."

Of Mr. Bush and the White House, Mr. Greenberg said: "Now, can they go too far? I don't know. But I think people are thankful to him for what he did on 9/11. He's got a lot of room on that."

(Emphasis mine.)

You mean all the running and the hiding he did after sitting there and continuing to read to a bunch of school children while thousands of Americans were dying?

You mean that's what people are thankful for?

Huh?

Is that what you mean?

So, basically, this "Democratic" pollster feels Bush can't go too far in exploiting 9/11 for political gain.

Hey, with friends like that, who needs enemas?

Where are those hugs?

According to Bob Herbert, Pataki must be filling in for Sir Hugs-A-Lot.

So there was Gov. George Pataki earlier this week with the unhappy task of asking for a moment of silence in remembrance of Sgt. Heath McMillin, a 29-year-old National Guardsman from Clifton Springs in upstate New York.

And who's going to do all the hugging while Bush is off in Crawford for a month? Jeez, I mean, a month... that's about 30 hugs or more he's gonna welch on.

You know, I'm not sure I've actually seen a single hug.

Hmm.

"HugGate."

Hmm.

The Rich Get Richer.

No, I'm not talking about Bush's tax cut, I'm talking about the Yankees.

So, let's take a look at this. In the last two weeks the Yankees have traded for:

Armando Benitez
Jesse Orosco
Dave Dellucci
Bret Prinz
Gabe White
Aaron Boone
and some minor leaguers

in deals with five teams.

This is the crap that pisses me off about the state of baseball today. You can talk all you want about how it doesn't guarantee you a good team, but there's little denying that if you have all the money in the world and aren't a moron like Tom Hicks or Peter Angelos, you can buy yourself the best team in baseball. Every year Steinbrenner outdoes himself trying to make sure he comes out on top.

How many years can the Yankees buy themselves a playoff birth before it just isn't fun to watch anymore?

HOLY CRAP!

John Kerry is HUGE! His arm is the size of Dean's torso! His head is like twice as big as Dean's!

I can't believe people talk about his haircut when he's a GIANT!

I think he's getting ready to crush Dean's head like a mellon in this picture.

"I WILL DESTROY YOU! I AM MIGHTY!"

Forget electing him President, we should just have him rip the roof off the White House and squash Bush between his thumb and forefinger!

Holy crap.

(And, yes, this post ostensibly falls under the category of "Politics.")

Fly the friendly skies.

I thought that whole Iraq war was supposed to make us safe from things like this!

So, this, then, is the message from the Bush administration on security policy:

Look, we just want to let you know... heh, it's kinda funny, when you think about it. Well, not so much funny as... scary... but, remember that thing that happened on Sept. 11th a couple of years ago? Well... looks like it might happen again. Yeah. I know, we're just as shocked as you are. And, uh, I know this is kind of a bad time to bring this up... but we're gonna have to cut the number of air marshals because of... other priorities. Like... the... Iraq occupation. And, uh, some of the President's friends really... needed... new summer homes. But, on the plus side, how about those pictures of Uday and Qusay?! I know... we're still looking for those weapons of mass destruction... They're always in the last place you look! Ha-ha! Ha! Heh. Uh, say, who wants to talk about gay marriage?!

You know, the DLC is right. That's airtight. Better get on the bandwagon!

Gay "Marriage."

Despite the fact that I am married, I'm not an expert on the legal aspects of marriage. Much like the fact that I drive a car, but I don't really know how it works.

I know there are pistons and the fuel is ignited to create a reaction and move the pistons…

In the car, not the marriage.

A marriage is more like a rotary engine.

Anyway, I guess I thought "marriage" was more of a religious term and that all the government really has a say in is the legal aspects of "unions", but the New York Times article about Bush's comments seems to contradict that, although it doesn't really lay out what the difference between "marriage" and "unions" is. It just seems the right and a lot of Democrats are attempting to make people think that this is something other than what it is. Republicans are against both "marriage" and "unions," Democrats are against "marriage" but for "unions." So, I understand what the Democrats (most of them) are for, but what are they against?

I did find a couple of quotes from Bush's press conference amusing.

"Yeah, I am mindful that we're all sinners," Mr. Bush replied. "And I caution those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own."

A log in the eye? OK, now, he's just run out of folksy things to say, hasn't he?

"I think it's very important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts, to be a welcoming country.

"On the other hand," Mr. Bush continued… (italics mine)

Right! Ha-ha! "We need to be accepting and open… but I ain't lettin' that Harvey Fierstein stand behind me! Guy gives me the creeps! What's with his voice?!"

"I believe a marriage is between a man and a woman. And I think we ought to codify that one way or the other. And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

And how much time, exactly, are they spending on the "other" way?

Surprise, surprise.

Bush Accepts Blame For African Uranium Charge.

In other news, monkeys are literally flying out of my butt.

I do like the Reuters lead: "After weeks of blaming others, President Bush accepted responsibility on Wendesday for making a now-discredited charge that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa."

The DLC Can Lick Me.

The blogs of the left are abuzz with the DLC's ominous warning not to present the Democratic party as "far left." This coming, not coincidentally, after Dean's big fund raising weekend.

First of all, everyone has pointed out ad naseum that Dean is not some crazy lefty.

Can we posit for a second that the Iraq war was not a centrist action? Certainly the amount of support it obtained world-wide would support that hypothesis. Certainly the amount of logical sense it made to anyone who was paying attention at the time would support that hypothesis.

But even if you believe that opposing the war is a "far left" idea, you fine folks at the DLC who are so concerned about the party (so concerned that one of the clowns who used to work there gave a bunch of money to the Bush campaign), riddle me this:

If the Republicans can put up a candidate who is as far to the right as George Bush is on just about every major issue, don't you think we should be allowed to put up a candidate who's to the left on just a couple?

Correction

Cheney managed to wring $300,000 out of Bush supporters so Dean "only" beat him by $200,000.

Just a slim margin of 66%.

The Boston Globe did the math (with the updated numbers) and noted my point below that Dean can go back and ask for more from his folks. Bush can't.

Cheney Doubled Up.

The Dean Team raised just over half a million dollars, doubling the amount Cheney was set to raise.

Yow.

Gah! GAAAAAH!

The Mariners lost to the lowly Rangers by a dismal score of 10-1. On the plus side, the seats were great and the home plate umpire could hear me telling him how blind he was.

Fortunately, the Angels beat the Athletics so the Mariners are still three games up in the AL West.

The talk on the radio on the ride home was about trades and, contrary to what I would have thought just a couple of days ago, it does seem quite possible the Mariners will make a deal. They are in the market, certainly, and one rumor even mentions Juan Gonzalez.

What I hope to see them deal for is someone with power who can replace Edgar as DH next year when he retires.

Three days.

Make mine a double.

If this keeps up, the Dean Team may actually double the amount raised by ol' Dick.

Anyone else trying this? I'm on Kerry's mailing list, too, and I haven't heard a peep.

While it remains to be seen if this level of fundraising can be maintained, I'm bullish on it. While Bush will have tapped out the 125 people who gave $2,000 (that's an assumption on my part based on his previous fund raising), Dean's 8,527 have given an average of $52. There's still plenty of room to hit them up for more.

Speaking personally, I've only begun to contribute to Dean.

Taking myself out to the ball game.

Off to the Mariners/Rangers game tonight. My lovely bride scored tickets in the 13th row behind home plate for being a stellar employee.

I once scored a bag of Funyuns for "not getting in the way too much" at my office.

Hopefully the Mariners will not repeat their pathetic showing of yesterday afternoon. Freddy "Sweaty" Garcia had a rough outing, Carlos Guillen threw two balls into the dugout and Mike Cameron committed a base running error of extraordinary magnitude.

Garcia was recently rumored as trade material to St. Louis for JD Drew and Cardinals' scouts were supposedly at yesterday's game. Guess that's not gonna happen.

Why Is Condi Still Employed?

If I were the president, I'd have fired her ass by now, if only because of the persona of incompetence she's made for herself.

"I don't read the reports. I don't speak with anyone beneath me." But, with that kind of work style, you can see why Bush likes her - she is cut from the same cloth.

And firing this guy…

Hadley said he had forgotten about the CIA's objections by the time the State of the Union was being crafted in January.

…should be a no-brainer.

And, yet, there they are. Still gainfully employed.

When NSC staffers are successfully using old Steve Martin lines ("I... forgot!") to excuse themselves, you know things are screwed.

How many calories is this?

For those who might say that the DLC is Republican-lite, TAPPED reveals you may have to take off the "lite" part.

Suddenly it all makes sense...

An acquaintance sent this in response to my solicitation mentioned previously:

Dear John,

Thank you for your nice letter. It sounds so very convincing. And wouldn't it be nice to have a president who is a doctor, that way we would get free medical advice every day! Still, we just like George Bush. Don't you? He is such a nice man. His wife Laura is what we want our daughter to grow up to be. Well, I guess there was that incident when she unfortunately killed her best friend in a car accident as a youth--but could happen to anybody. And look at George--he just makes us proud to be American. George beat alcohol, he beat drugs, he beat Laura (no, no, but we'd forgive him if he did), and he beat the tax system (remember when he sold the Texas Rangers and didn't pay any taxes--that shows those "big government" Democrats!). Since getting elected, he's just changed things so much for the better. We think increasing spending without us having even to pay taxes (thanks to our six children--we're actually getting money back!) is much better for everyone, don't you? And since 9/11 he's just made us so proud. George beat Afghanistan, he beat the Taliban, he beat Saddam, and he beat Al Qaeda (kind of)--so, we say, let's go with a winner! America might not always be right, but when we are together, we are stronger than the sum of the electorate--or something like that.

George is also a God-fearing man who believes God forgives our sins. This is probably good, since I think we may have killed some people recently, but I'm not sure. Still, as long as the deficit starts going down eventually (and George says it will) and as long as our boys stop jumping in front of bullets in Iraq (silly boys--you'd think the military would train them better), and as long as the CIA, NSC, and various other agencies continue to be responsible for all the mistakes of our government, well, we say George is still the best man for the job. Don't you think so? It's important for us all to be patriotic and not worry so much about those other countries. It's probably just best not to question important matters of national security, since ordinary people really can't understand that kind of thing, don't you think? That's why we elect people we can trust, like George, who wouldn't lie to us, and that quiet little man, Dick Cheney--who is just so shy. If only George Tenet hadn't told them those silly rumors about Iraq's nuclear program. But we forgive him too.

Anyway, thanks for your nice note. I am sure that Mr. Dean is a nice man and will find a job somehow. Pres. Bush says the economic recovery is just around the corner, as soon as we finish up in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Liberia--it shouldn't be long now.

Best wishes and God Bless America,

Jane and Bob "American Pie" Smith

Whew. I'm glad we cleared that up. I feel so much better!

Mission Accomplished.

The Dean Team has reached $250,000.

Now, Cheney isn't actually scheduled to complete his fundraising until the end of day tomorrow. So the Dean Team is asking people to go on contributing and then they'll spend the money on some surprise they'll reveal later.

Feel free to put your guesses in the comments. I'll get the ball rolling.

Rich people want to know.

Dorothy and Lewis Cullman and George Soros sponsored an ad on the back page of the New York Times' Week In Review section today that uses some of Billmon's WMD quotes.

It's good to know that not all rich people are Richard Mellon Scaife.

So, it's not fear of getting punched, then?

Eugene Oregon responded in comments to my question below about why some people use pseudonyms on their political blogs and mentions two reasons I missed. More than just fear of implications on their day jobs, there's the idea that your day job could taint your blog! Didn't really think of that one.

The other, more obvious, reason is using a pseudonym allows you to post from work without fear of your boss knowing what you're doing during office hours.

Eugene also points out how boring it can be when people use their blogs to talk about the cute thing their cat did, etc.

I'll try not to do that. I don't have a cat so that should make it easier. We do have a lot of spiders in our house, some of them rather large and hairy but they don't often do anything very cute.

Clarification

Eric asks in comments if it's Cheney who's raised the amazing amount or Dean.

I meant Dean, but take a look. They're up to $213,000.

The enthusiasm of Dean's supporters in responding like trained Jack Russell terriers (I mean that in a good way - fast and with a wild-eyed furvor) and their willingness to open up their wallets is fantastic.

Amazing

Cheney is expected to raise $250,000 this weekend at a couple of fundraising events and the Dean campaign is trying to match that.

They've already raised $130,000 and it's just Saturday afternoon.

I took an unprecedented step for me - I hit up my friends and family.

Here's the text of an email I sent:

I know that people think I'm just a jokester who doesn't take anything seriously and I'm only around for comic relief and I exist solely for the purpose of cracking wise and I sunburn easily and my pants are hiked up too high and my mother dresses me funny... but I'm actually serious about this statement: I think Bush is the worst president since Nixon... and he's gunning for number one.

He's misled the nation about the need to go to war with Iraq, a conflict that has killed over 250 US servicemen and 6,000 Iraqis, and has resulted in an occupation that's costing us $4 billion a month and the life of one US serviceman a day. After asking so much from our armed forces, how did he rewarded them? By cutting their benefits. This after ramming through a disasterous tax cut for the wealthiest Americans that this country will be paying for for years.

He's racked up a record deficit of $450 billion a year in a cynical attempt to bankrupt the system. He's nominated extremist after extremist to the judiciary, has sought to tear down the separation between church and state and has presided over a Justice Department gone mad with power.

When statements made in Bush's State of the Union adress were questioned by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, someone in this president's administration committed an illegal act of intimidation by blowing the cover of Wilson's wife, a CIA operative. Not only has this likely ruined her career, it could have gotten her killed.

Bush has got to go.

If you haven't thought about who you like in the Democratic field, I suggest taking a look at Howard Dean.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/

Dean's fiscally responsible, opposed the war with Iraq, and has measured solutions for health care, domestic policy and international affairs. You might hear some people say Dean's not electable because he opposed the war. I disagree. Dean is the one candidate who has consistently proven that he's not afraid to take on the administration. While the Democrats in congress were trying to be Bush lite, Dean was being a Democrat.

You know... the party that got the most votes in the last presidential election.

If you like Dean and think you might want to contribute to his campaign, I've become a Dean Team Leader and, if you're so inclined, you can contribute on my page at Dean's web site:

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1090&px=1285102

Vice President Cheney expects to raise $250,000 this weekend from several special interest groups and the Dean campaign is trying to match that.

But, if Dean doesn't float your boat or you just don't feel you can commit to any one candidate right now ("It's not Dean. It's me."), I encourage you to contribute to the Democratic Party's ePatriots fund. This fund will help whoever is chosen as the candidate after the convention.

Not coincidentally, I also have a page there that you can contribute on:

https://www.democrats.org/epatriots/give.html?sourcecode=P000386

Both Dean and the Democratic Party had automated email solicitations that I could have used to ask you to contribute, but I wanted to write something myself and, if you weren't interested, I didn't want them to have your email address.

If you lose the links above it doesn't matter. The important thing is contributing any way you can. Bush expects to raise an obscene amount of money for this election and has no Republican rivals. His opponent will need all our support.

You know I'm not a pushy guy. I don't like doing things like this and if you find this annoying I apologize. But this is something I feel strongly about and I hope you'll give it some thought.

Best,
John
http://www.moltz.net/~john/

I really struggled over taking that step. I HATE asking people for stuff like that and I tried to make sure I didn't send it to anyone at their work address (although I realized after I sent it I screwed one up - sorry, Nick!).

But, something's gotta be done about this.

Pseudonames

(sic)

Here's an interesting topic that I struggled with when I was setting up this site and I've thought about again thanks to my blossoming mutual love affair with Demagogue.

When you're creating a blog that will talk about politics, should you use your real name?

When I wrote this Crazy Apple Rumors story, which I thought was really rather innocuous, it got linked from Apple's site and then from the Free Republic's web site.

Readers from the Free Republic were furious that I would dare poke fun at Bush and one even suggested physical violence against me might be in order.

Now, there's a long way between sending a nasty email to someone saying they should get punched, and actually looking them up, flying to where ever they are, tracking them down and punching them. But stranger things have happened and it's something to consider.

Particularly when you're a smart-ass like me.

When you look at the world of political blogging, there are those who use pseudonyms (Atrios, Hesiod, the crew at Demagogue, Bartcop) and those who don't (Kevin Drum, Markos "Kos" Zuniga, Roger Ailes, Josh Marshall).

I've always been curious about why the folks who use pseudonyms do. Is it fear of being punched (or worse)? Is it because they have jobs that preclude them from being openly partisan? Is it because they're wanted by the law?

I don't have a job that precludes me from being openly partisan and I'm not wanted by the law (what they don't know won't hurt them) so that left me with the last reason - fear of being punched.

Well, really, it's the fear of worse, because I'm not so afraid of being punched. Eventually, I just decided that it's a free damn country and, if they can run around screaming about how great Bush is and how the Dixie Chicks are evil without fear of reprisal then why should I have to act different?

But I'd be interested to poll the pseudonymers and see what their reasons are.

Sucks To Be You.

The Mariners womped Texas last night and two details of the game spoke volumes about Texas' pitching woes.

The starter was a guy they just brought up from AAA who had gone something like 7-9 with a 4.85 ERA. That's the gem of your farm system?

After he got shelled, they brought in the guy who was supposed to start tonight.

He also got shelled.

The Bat Is Back.

Here. (Some special effects guys made a copyright-busting Batman short - 43.4 MB Quicktime movie, via BoingBoing.)

And here.

Holy cats.

A few of my goofball comments on the fine Demagogue have garnered me a posting by Eugene Oregon.

You know... I don't think that's his real name... I may be wrong, but...

Regardless, I'm thrilled to have been mentioned. Demagogue is a great site, if somewhat difficult to spell, and I'm appalled that there isn't more comment traffic over there because it's great stuff. If there were, my little monkey comments wouldn't get noticed.

I mean, Daily Kos and Eschaton are great too, but why try to add your voice to a comments section that already has 75 comments? You're just gonna get drowned out. Spread the love, people. It's just common sense.

My mistake.

It's not Adobe. Something's screwed with application switching and the dock.

For example, I have Safari in the foreground and it still appears greyed out in the dock. No matter what application I quit, I get bounced back to BBEdit.

The only thing I can think of is the security update. This wasn't happening before that. Anyone else having this problem?

UPDATE: I logged out an logged back in again and that fixed it. Still don't know what caused it, though.

What the hell is wrong with Adobe?

I'm surfing around in Safari and I notice that Photoshop Elements is still open from when I used it last night. So I right click on its icon in the dock and select Quit.

Now, normally when you do this, the application will just quietly quit in the background. In Elements' case, however, all the pallets quickly pop to the front and then disappear as the application quits. When it's gone I find I'm in...

BBEdit.

Duh?

I'm not sure how it chose to dump me back into BBEdit instead of Safari, where I started this mystical journey, but I was rather surprised.

A Lesson In Misdirection.

Pay no attention to this! (Link via Buzzflash.) Because, look, look! We've got bloody pictures of Uday and Qusay!

I mean, holy cow! Is it them?! Should we be showing them?! And whatever else we need to say in order to get you to not look at the first link...

Yikes.

Uggabugga lays out a chilling discovery by Eric Alterman.

At long last, have they no decency?

Seriously, though, with the reptilian Ms. Coulter trying to rehabilitate the memory of Joe McCarthy, expect these slimy shenanigans to continue.

We're up.

OK, now we're cooking with gas.

Let's talk about the deal. The deal is, this blog is whatever bothers to make the journey from my brain down to my fingertips.

Which are usually covered in the sticky coating that's on Screaming Yellow Zonkers.

Mmm.

Where was I?

OK. I've had blogs in the past. Yes indeed. I won't try to lie about them. My wife knows all about my relationships with blogs. You can't blackmail me. Well, not for that, anyway.

But that thing back in college... Whoo! Boy, was I dr...

Anyway, that's all in the past.

I've had a Mac blog, a personal blog and a political blog and, man, that's just too much trouble. So here it all is. And you can comment on it.

Unless you get snippy. I don't like people who get snippy.

There's more to come. More tweaking of the template and more special deals for you, the reader. So, thanks for reading. Hopefully you'll find something interesting or at least amusing.